It's certainly replaced my Oregon! No regrets here, and it's all because of that stupid usb connector. The Montana does that power connection perfectly. There are many things I like about the Oregon, but I won't own another. My wife, on the other hand, still prefers the Oregon, so that's what we use the 3BR cable on.
I'm chompin at the bit to get my hands on a Montana. We already have too many GPS on hand. Zumo 550, 60CSx, Oregon 450 and a couple of Nuvi's so I have to get rid of one the others first. Interesting observation, we were at the KTM Adventure Rider Rally at Lake Tahoe weekend before last. KTM used the Oregon that we installed on their 990 Adventure Dakar demo bike to map three loops. They then sent the riders to our booth where we copied the loop tracks onto the rider's GPS. This let us get a handle on what GPS were being used. The shocking truth was that the ZUMO 550 was by far the most prevalent Adventure bike GPS! There were a few 60CSx, some Nuvi's and two ZUMO 660s. The only Oregon was ours mounted on the company KTM and there were no Montana's. At least none came through the booth. I expect that to change a lot by next year's rally. -Shov
Maybe you didn't get many Oregon or Montana users through the booth because they were sending the tracks wirelessly to each other? It's amazing, sometimes I get the impression that people have the attitude that they're damned if they'll buy yet another gps, having coughed a good chunk of change for whatever they've already got. I find when you tell people that you could beam over tracks, routes, waypoints etc directly to their compatible gps, that you can have multiple map files, that the resolution is much higher, well they break into two camps: those who listen, and those who don't want to hear. If they stopped to think of how much progress has been made since the 60 series was at its peak, they might think differently.
I have to say that I am very happy with my Oregon 450. I really thought about the Montana but looking at it at Bass Pro it's just a little to big for my taste right now. If I was on a bigger bike I might like it, but I'm on a wr250 and the Montana is half the size of my bike. Just kidding! I wish the Oregon talked to me like the Montana does. Thing is I paid $249 for the Oregon 450 from gps city. Wish I could have caught the REI labor day deal where you could get them for $199 with a rebate. Dangit! Oh well! Dishing out another $300 for the Montana just wasn't worth it to me. Anyway, I am very happy with my Oregon 450. I loaded City Navigator 2012 and it calculates and recalculates my routes within seconds. Took it to Colorado this past week and went over some nasty rocky passes like the Pitkin side of Hancock Pass and the Tincup side of Tincup Pass. I also followed a very tough 4 wheel drive trail outside of Pitkin where the Colorado topo map came in very handy. Even while not on a County road the Oregon told me what direction to go to get back to the nearest county road that would take me back to civilization. It does eat batteries but I am hard wiring it to my bike with the 3br set up. For off the bike use I bought 4 rechargeable NIMH double AA's with the charger off Amazon for $20. At this point I'm a very satisfied customer with the Oregon 450.
My Garmin oem 12v setup crapped out. I just use it on AA's now. I can still connect to my PC, but no more 12v... What's this 3br?
Its a setup from http://www.3brpowersports.com/products_TAPP.htm I'm using the TAPP LITE for the power and the TAPP CAPPed usb cable. I just received mine last week and haven't hooked it up yet so I can't give it a fair review but others on this forum say it works great. Seems like it will. Shov3br who posted here earlier can help you out.
Well just to keep things in perspective, the first two new gps units I bought were a 60CSx and a 76CSx, and each cost me over $500. The next two I bought were two Oregon 550s and they cost over $500 each as well. This Montana 650 which cost $579, and included NA City Navigator, doesn't seem that expensive to me. It's a matter of timing. If you want to participate in Garmin's extended Beta testing, you've gotta pay for that privilege. wait a year or two, and the price will come down to earth. But I don't think $500 to $600 is a lot to pay, in the grand scheme of things. I sold my Oregon 550 for $250, while it was still worth that much to someone. As prices tumble, so does the return on initial investment so it's better not to wait too long to switch, if you plan to, imho. Edit: just found the receipt for my Oregon purchase... > 2ea * * RAM Mount Garmin Oregon Approach Mount Cradle RAM-HOL-GA31U > ** 2ea * * * $8.68ea * * * $17.36 > 2ea * * Garmin Colorado and Oregon Vehicle Power Cable * * * 2ea > $19.95ea * * * $39.90 > 2ea * * Garmin Oregon 550 with Camera (S/N: 1MW006161,1MW005957) > 2ea * * * $529.95ea * * * $1,059.90 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Item Subtotal: *$1,117.16 > Shipping & Handling: *$21.95 > Tax: *$56.96 > Total: *$1,196.07
I've been using the Oegon almost daily for 4 months now, touring around South East Asia. It's mounted on a RAM mount - which by the way if you are looking for something sturdy even off road, that won't give you any hassle or worries, you should invest in. The Oregon has been flawlessly doing what any tourer needs in term of tracking, mapping routes and keeping records of waypoints etc.. I've used it under heavy moonsoon rain and scorching sun. My bike doesn't by a long shot minimize vibrations so the Oregon has had its share of "bad vibes", not to mention the particularly bad roads of northern Vietnam and Laos that didn't go easy on the ride. But this little GPS is performing amazingly. It's great to travel with because of its tiny size, and ease of use. I often take it with me when not riding and just exploring towns and country sides. I use rechargeable batteries, they last me 10h with the GPS set on battery save, with the display on full brightness. I carry another two batteries with me in case I ride for more hours. I have been riding at noon with the sun all over the place and never had any problems reading the screen. This is partly thanks to the RAM mount that allows me to make subtle shifts in the GPS position to get the best of the screen view. I didn't use at all the USB charging, so I can't comment on that. The waterproof-ness of the unit has been perfect and reliable. It took a few dips in mud and dirt and is still performing like nothing happened. I was worried before buying it about handling it with gloves, and about the screen display size. But you actually get used to the size of the screen really quickly and the navigation is very clear and easy to follow. Gloves on you are never bothered with them, I barely see a difference with using the GPS without gloves ! Absolutely worth the money, I'm really happy with it.
I have an Oregon 200. I love it. It has served me well. I decided to upgrade the firmware the other day because it would occasionally shut down when connected to external power and when it had to recalculate the route if I took a wrong turn. Now it turns off almost every time it has to recalculate the route. Then when you turn it back on it will turn off again when it recalculates if you do not cancel navigation. You only have a few seconds to do this. You can then pic your destination again and it will navigate. This is a real pain. I already have 4.20 firmware loaded and webupdate says that I have the newest version. I wish I knew how to revert to an older version. Is there a place that I can post my issues? Edit: I found where to get older versions of the software. The Oregon Wiki pages has the links. Now to see if this helps.
Has anyone found a clock display on the Oregon 450 that displays seconds? This is the 1st GPS I have ever had that did not have a good clock display. It seems a shame to only have 1 minute resolution on a clock that should be accurate to better than a microsecond
If you go to the Trip Computer and have the time displayed on that screen, choose large characters at the bottom right and you'll see this kind of display.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread, a wealth of information has been shared here! I've been pretty happy with my 376C, then later, adding a 60CSX. But after my wife got hooked on Geocaching, I decided to add either the Montana or the Oregon to my gadgets. As much as I liked the Montana,I just can't justify the extra expense right now, so even with the known USB issue, after reading this thread, I decided to go with the 550T. Most of my usage will be on a road bike and a 4-wheel drive, so I don't think 'llI have the vibration issues discussed here. Thanks again to all for giving me the tools to make the right decision
Garmin Oregon x50 (WebUpdater) software version 5.30 http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4523 Change History Changes made from version 5.20 to 5.30: Added Geocaching with Photos (http://garmin.blogs.com/softwareupdates/2012/01/geocaching-with-photos.html) Fixed potential naming issues with imported routes from BaseCamp Fixed issue with 'Hut' point type in TOPO Australia & New Zealand maps Fixed issue with magnetic north offset when projecting a waypoint Fixed issue with track log recording while using the stopwatch
Hopefully someone can help me with this problem. I have read an not found a solution. I have a problem that the Oregon 200 that I have always recalculates the route once on the gps. I have a route downloaded from the internet that looks great in both Mapsource and Bacecamp. These are routes with few waypoints but with many turns. When I load the route on the gps it immediately recalculates the route to a different route than is shown on the computer. Is there anyway to make it keep the same route? What settings do I have wrong? I am on the latest 4.20 firmware. I have tried adding waypoints in the past and also translating the route into a track and following that. There should be a better way. Thanks for your help.
There is no way of avoiding the recalc that I am aware of. Add (way) more waypoints (called via points) to your route to keep it more true to the original. Or create a track from it and follow the track...
Just wanted to put out a thank-you for writing this. This is the kind of real world info and story that I was looking for. It was time to upgrade from the old 60 and I was having a real toss up. I liked the Oregon, but was not too sure how it would put up to my abuse. Your post covered my concerns and helped me pull the trigger on the Oregon. And also a thanks out to Emmbeedee as well for a wealth of real world experience, not just opinion. Great posts by both you guys. Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback - it's good to know it is of some use. The Oregon is a really awesome device, just too small for my old eyes now. I just noticed, there's been a few software updates for the Oregon. Must update my wife's 550 to the latest. Changes made from version 5.40 to 5.50: Improved GPS response at low speeds. Fixed potential issue when exiting geocache descriptions Changes made from version 5.20 to 5.40: Added Geocaching with Photos (http://garmin.blogs.com/softwareupdates/2012/01/geocaching-with-photos.html) Fixed potential naming issues with imported routes from BaseCamp Fixed issue with 'Hut' point type in TOPO Australia & New Zealand maps Fixed issue with magnetic north offset when projecting a waypoint Fixed issue with track log recording while using the stopwatch Fixed mass storage issue when used without batteries http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4523
Thanks for the reply. I now think that you are right, but there are things that you can do. My process of how I figured it out is as follows. I opened up the gpx file in Basecamp and made tracks of the route and saved it all in the same file. I then opened it in Mapsource because it shows all or the items in the file on the screen at a time. I then added a via point about the middle of the route and then the computer recalculates the route. I found some mapsource tutorials about routing and I think some are on this site. I then continued adding via points until the route followed track that I made earlier. Be aware that the route still may not work correctly if reversed and more via points may need to be added. I have found that I have trouble using Basecamp for some of the things that I want to do and Mapsource does them easier. Basecamp does some things that Mapsource won't though. I now feel that I can make routes that actually work.